you have to be a little bit crazy to survive

Entries tagged with food

I was on Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, either as some kind of part-owner of a restaurant or as an advisor/friend of the head chef. I remember the first part of the dream was involved in building the kitchen... in Minecraft. We were building the kitchen underground. I asked how things were going as far as the food went and one of the other employees said we were out of mushrooms for one of a mushroom dish. I said that yes, that was because we didn' t have a mushroom farm yet, but I could build one off of the side of the kitchen if they wanted me to.

I didn't end up doing that just yet, because the head chef and I came up with an idea to add a special to the menu, either every day or at random or whenever it got boring. Gordon showed up and I told him this and he loved the idea. Then I asked him if he had good ideas for chicken cordon blue and he said something like, "Yes, in fact I can train him [the head chef] to make that tonight." Gordon was already working on writing down a shopping list of ingredients we needed for the regular food.

The first few things Gordon rattled off for the chicken cordon blue recipe were too hard to remember, so I decided to write down the stuff for it on a post-it note. For some reason, the first item was "delicate pepperoni slices" and I think there were a couple of other descriptive words in there too. I tried writing "pepperoni" first and utterly failed, writing down other letters somehow. So then I made several attempts at writing "delicate" and failed every single time.

Gordon was right there working on his own list and having as much trouble believing I was failing writing this badly as I was. Finally I tried writing it all in capital letters and ended up writing "GRATEFUL." That was somewhat ironic considering we were all extremely grateful that Gordon was helping us, but it was still the wrong word. I gave up and asked him to write it down and he took over.

Then I woke up... and realized why I wasn't able to write, since reading and writing are extremely difficult to do while dreaming.

This chat excerpt sums it up well, considering a lot was nonsense and illogic that's difficult to describe in the real, awake world:

[10:51:20 PM] I dreamed the other night that round aliens with a cutsey-type anime eyes face (think gummy critters) came to earth in giant tree-shaped ships, and one of them asked me to order her pizza[10:51:31 PM] and she was kinda heavy to carry around[10:51:51 PM] I have no idea what the fr0g was up with that XD

I was Riddick, but the time period and setting were rather strange. I think it was supposed to be in the past at first, medieval China. I had a "friend," some handsome guy whose name I can't remember, who I think I was a bodyguard for or something. I went with him to see this rich guy who collected ancient artifacts. My friend did this as well. We both knew the other guy was up to something shady but at this point we were seeing what we could without ruffling feathers, and the dude was nice enough to show off some stuff in his mansion.

That night, I went back and snuck around after dark and found a document and a shard of pottery that were major clues and a ton of information (I don't remember what it was related to, though). This was in a large gallery room where a lot of the artifacts were kept under glass or in displays. I went out a door and the next area on my way out was a huge indoor cavern almost, and to the right there was ancient ruins I couldn't see very well into, but there was some kind of ritual going on.

It was like the "bad guy" (the dude who was showing us around earlier) was having some kind of cosplay fantasy thing and pretending that the princess he was obsessed with was finally returning his attentions. It sounded a bit like a theatrical production, in which he and whoever was playing the girl sang a mix of "Hellfire" from Disney's Hunchback Of Notre Dame (especially the final line "she will burn!") and the part of Disney's The Little Mermaid where Ariel gives her voice to the sea witch.

Weird... so I headed left, as I knew that was the way out, and the bad guy's servant was just leaving the ritual and I could still hear him singing but he cut off as he saw me leaving. Oops. Not long later I hit the last door to the outside and surprised a guard coming through the other way, so the jig must be up. I pulled the guard through the door and he lost his spear in the process. I can't remember if I fast-killed him or not, I was more intent on getting the eff out since I had already been identified. I was also not worried about having been identified even though I was known to be working with my friend. I guess it was okay by the mission's parameters, like he could say I went rogue and he had no idea what I was doing (or maybe with the document it wouldn't matter).

I ended up in a large courtyard and found a quick way onto the slate-tile roofs that rimmed that courtyard. There were guards with bows and arrows but with the darkness and my speed I was able to take the short route along the roofs and leap off the far side without getting hit. There was some question in the dream logic at this point as to whether I'd hurt myself in the fall; I ignored that bit and kept running and the dream forgot about it.

At this point I "remembered" I had a wild black stallion who was my horse and was currently running free through the hills so I summoned him with a whistle. No saddle or anything, aaand off we went. Mission accomplished. There was some weirdness about chilling with the horse after and eating tomato sandwiches, in which my character was no longer Riddick but some random guy.

Then it was the next morning and I was seeing things from a pseudo-movie perspective. It was now modern day (dream logic fail) and my friend was walking around a small factory or workshop that I think he owned, somewhere in the US (New York perhaps). He was thinking, and in his thoughts made a reference to the fact that Riddick had "pulled it off nicely" last night. So yeah, it was like there were currently no repercussions against my friend.

The friend was then on his way to a party that hadn't started yet, and arrived there where this blonde lady who was fairly caught up in being properly fashionable told him her hair was a wreck even though he complimented her on it. Apparently she'd had it dyed "blonde-black" which was some sort of light blue-silver color in the end, and had to tell her hairdresser to redo it. So it was looking a bit fried but at least generally blonde again. She was tasting hors d'oeuvres coming to her from the kitchen for the upcoming party, and some kind of savory thing (a mini-pie or quiche maybe? can't remember) went over very well but not a single-serving coffee cake.

The beginning of this dream involved running around a hospital in which most of the people had been turned into zombies for unknown reasons. They were slower than the humans but stronger (and waaaaay more of them). Those of us who were still not-undead were trying to get everyone who was still living together, and I remember attacking a zombie with a wooden pencil and literally having an argument with it as to the fact that a wood pencil stabbed into the heart should kill it. (Dream logic forgot that this applies only to vampires.) I won the argument, the zombie died.

At one point I was alone again running from zombies who seemed a lot smarter than they should have. I could hear one of them off in the distance sort of calling out to me that he'd find me. (Most of the zombies just did the typical horror movie "raaaaaaaaaar" or whatever.)

I found myself in an empty room that had cupboards up high and I remember trying to see if I could crawl up into a cupboard as some of them seemed to open up into the ceiling-works, or I could at least maybe hide until the zombies went away. I'm not sure if this succeeded or not because the next thing I remember was arriving in the hospital lobby where the survivors were all holed up defending one spot and actually managing to hold it.

I joined the group and after a while things calmed down enough that I said some of us who knew the local area should try and go out and scavenge for things like food and weapons. I told them that everyone should at least go in pairs, and to not let each other out of their sight. I even said if the other person had to go to the bathroom their partner should stay right in the bathroom with them and plug their ears and go "LALALALALALA!" (*snicker*) ....yeah... well it was smart advice for zombie-land at any rate, if rather goofball.

There were restaurants and stores sorta near the hospital, as well as some of our homes. I went to my house with a guy and his son (the house was nothing like anywhere I've ever lived in real life). As I was looking for useful things, I turned around and saw that the son was going zombie. The father was freaking out and the son appeared to be attacking him with some kinda weird black magical bits that flew out of his eyes. I told the guy to run for it but he didn't, he seemed upset he was losing his son and I told him there wasn't anything that could be done, if he wanted to live through this himself he had to bail!

Well, he was still not listening so I ran, managed to snag a bag full of large kosher crackers in the kitchen and ran out the front door. I hadn't had time to get much else of use (I don't think I even snagged any knives in the kitchen either, faaaail). Some blonde guy who's outfit and convertible car screamed California was pulling up in the driveway, he seemed a bit lost. He also had a little girl with him in the passenger seat (there was no back seat, the font seat was all one long seat).

I asked him for a ride, meanwhile he was looking for directions and I realized he wasn't local. I said, "You mean it hasn't spread past our town yet?" And he was like, "What are you talking about?" I told him something bad was happening, people turning into zombies, and I needed to get back to the hospital fast; I could show him where to drop me off because it was close by and then he should get the heck out of Dodge.

I could tell he wasn't sure he could trust me but he had his daughter move over into the middle so I could get in, then we were driving along the main drag (that had a lot of traffic... that I knew came from out of town and just happened to come straight through and continue on). I pointed out miscellaneous zombie and people corpses and then mentioned I'd been fighting them. Suddenly he really wasn't sure he should have let me into the car, I could tell by the look on his face. I told him not to worry, and to please just go right ahead and drive up the sidewalk that led to the hospital main doors (it went in from the road a bit).

He did, and several zombies started chasing us. They were fast enough that they were really close to the car and I couldn't get out and make it to the door. I told him to drive circles, and he managed to get the brainless things to keep chasing the car but they were a little slower than it, so before long there was space enough for me to make a run for it. I made it in through the doors and as far as I know the guy drove off like a bat out of hell.

Meanwhile I reached my impromptu buddies still holed up in the lobby in the middle of another attack. I told them the virus or whatever it was that was making these zombies hadn't seemed to have spread beyond our town yet, and I think we might have thought about moving locations to somewhere safer or trying to go warn the rest of civilization...

(All of Season 1 in about 4 days. Yeps. But does my subconscious give me sexy cussing Chef Ramsay? Nopes.)

For some reason I got a job as head chef of a restaurant being run by the boss I had years ago at a movie theater in real life. I had no freaking clue what I was doing at all... cuz y'know... I'm not a chef. The kitchen layout made very little sense, so much so I'm not even going to try to describe it. I was supposed to grill a steak to medium, and finally got one of the other employees to tell me it required "two timers." They showed me a button to push above the stove, and it set this timer thing that counted down. When I pushed it again, it barely moved and then signalled the time was over already. That didn't seem right...

I knew I was failing that, but I wanted to get an order right. I managed to fry two sausages that turned into longer hot-dog-like things while I was doing that (logic? wtf is this logic you speak of?). One of the other cooks had already made one of the sandwiches it was supposed to go in, which required a long bread roll with the two sausages spanning the distance. I managed to put that together, then asked what else to do and the guy said to put ketchup and mustard and I think cheese or something on it. I was like "are you sure? what did the ticket say" cuz I was worried about allergies. He just kinda made me do it and then went off to do his own thing.

I was getting upset, and some other management person showed up to ask what was the matter. (He looked like the character Richard Alpert from ABC's LOST.) I remember actually crying over the thing, and stating my issues with "I'm worried about the customer having allergies because I have them and I know what that's like and this guy won't tell me what the order was supposed to be."

I'm really not sure what happened next, but the next thing I remember was talking to the boss's son (who didn't match up in any way to reality and heck I only just remembered that it's possible that lady did have an actual son). He was kinda plain-looking and overweight. We were in some kind of back room, maybe I was taking a break or giving up or something? And randomly he asked if we wanted to get married. And I'm like "what the eff, why not!" So we were heading back out through the kitchen to get the freak out of there, and passed by the boss. We told her what we were doing... and for some reason, the dream suddenly decided I was actually marrying her.

(One of the stranger real-life issues I've been dealing with lately is squirrels in the AC/heater vents of the apartment I'm currently living in. It is a thoroughly retarded problem... which is now making its way into my sleep, apparently.)

The room(s) were completely wrong in the dream, but I realized suddenly that I could see the squirrels inside a floor vent (in reality, all the vents are in the ceiling or close to it) and they were creeping me out. I banged against the vent with a pencil or something, and yelled at the squirrels and they scampered off. Then I noticed something else in there... a cat? I decided to get a screwdriver and take the cover off the vent.

As I was doing that, I noticed something else in there as well, further back. A dog. Mind you, logic was breaking down so badly by this point that the inside of the vent area was pretty large. But anyways, once the cover was off the cat and its two kittens that had also been hiding in there ventured out, I called to the dog. It was a white lab and still had a collar and even a leash on, so I figured someone was probably looking for it. The dog was fairly friendly and came when called, and I managed to read the name on the collar's tag: Cal. It was in really pretty cursive writing too, etched into the gold tag.

The mother cat had a collar as well, a strange one with no visible clasp made of worn brown leather with burned-in patterns, but I saw on it the name "TOTO" repeated at various points along the collar. Candy the cat was suddenly there randomly, and was curious about the kittens as she's been fixed most of her life. The cats seemed to be getting along okay, and I was more worried about the dog. I went out of the room for the moment, leaving the animals behind, and asked my kid sister (who was apparently around wherever the heck this was) to get a dish of cat food as it was the best thing we had for the moment.

I went back into the room to get the dog to come with me outside, and he was really happy to see me again. I was trying to think of how I was going to tie him up outside with the leash he already had on...

The entire first part of this dream was total crap and shall thus be ignored, but eventually I looked out a window in my mother's house (random dream house) and saw that a huge storm had approached, including several funnel clouds. I said something to her as she was elsewhere in the house about it, and how we were all in danger, and she said something about everybody getting to a safe spot in the house. And I was staring at this huge dark underside of the cloud and realizing how outlandish the whole thing was... and then said, "No, it's okay, this is a dream." She kept saying we needed to get safe, and I ignored her and climbed out the window.

I decided I was Riddick, and I had to find Stefan (the alternate universe 17-year-old version of Lord Recluse from City Of Villains that a friend of mine roleplays ♥ ). Stefan was out here somewhere and I had to find him. I kept calling out his name and running along the grass of a very large field that pretty much seemed to stretch to the horizon, except for maybe a forest somewhere to what felt like the west. It was a bit hazy out now, and I don't remember being worried about the weather anymore. I had too many clothes on for Riddick, technically, and I knew that was left over from the previous parts of the dream. I didn't care, I took some of it off (like a jacket) and threw it away and kept shouting and running. The problem now was that being lucid, I was too close to awake. I did wake up partly, and lost the dream, though I tried hard to get back to it or remember that I was trying to find Stefan should I enter a different dream.

I did the latter, managing to enter the next dream as Riddick properly (that's probably a first), and kept remembering what I had to do. I was now beside a house near a short cliff that led to a stream that emptied into the ocean; it was overcast. The beach wasn't one of those white-sand ones, more like... grey sand and a few scraggly plants. I kept looking for Stefan, going down a trail along the cliffside, but then I heard him call to me. He was back up the trail somewhere, up in the yard of the house? I called back, "Where are you?" and he said, "In the gazebo."

I went back up the trail and was worried I wouldn't see such a thing (as I didn't remember it being there before and I still partly knew this was a dream). But there it was, across the yard closer to the ocean. There were people in it, but as I approached I noticed it was two or three teenage girls, and the gazebo changed into some weird kind of similarly-shaped building made of metal with huge glass windows on my side, and an elevator inside. The girl closest to me was Asian and said something I don't remember anymore, and I decided the elevator was my best shot for finding Stefan.

I got in, and it seems like I knew this was a place I wasn't really allowed to go. I remember the controls only seemed to have one button (1st floor, which was where we were??). I was lost as to what to do for a moment, then a couple guys in suits with briefcases got in and used a key to start the elevator. I sorta just stood there like "yeah I'm supposed to be here, duh" and the elevator went down into the ground.

The floor I got off on opened into a cafeteria, and people were serving pizza there. I remember my real-life allergies suddenly seemed like an issue (poor Riddick ^^; ) and then I decided, what the heck, I'd eat some. I had no idea where Stefan was and I was hungry. (Dream logic was also sorta failing badly by this point.) There were other people getting a slice too, and the servers had said it was free because they'd made it and some gathering had canceled and they weren't going to waste it.

I sat down on a bench beside a wall near the food line and suddenly Stefan was there too! Right beside me. I was glad to have found him even if it didn't make much sense, and since we were right by the food, he got a slice too at my urging. I said we should eat before anything else happened as it seems like it'd been ages since we'd had any proper sort of meal. We sat together on the bench eating and I think I asked him what was going on or if he was okay.

I began the dream as a much darker version of myself. I was put into some sort of free-for-all environment that I think was a prison where people were sent to die. It was all underground, and a fairly modern-day setting. The top two or three floors were safe, but the floors below those were supposedly super dangerous and if you went down there it was your fault if you died. The top section was more like a bunch of apartments, and the lower sections became more like a run-down, abandoned shopping mall.

I had no weapon at first, and went straight for the first dangerous level. I killed several people (including children) as if it were nothing, and then one guy appeared with a switchblade, thinking because he had a weapon I would be afraid of him, or he would win the battle by default, or some such stupid thing. All I knew was he had a weapon and it was gonna be mine. I snagged it and killed him with it and a few more people.

Then I guess my conscience got to me and I decided not to kill anymore children. Plus, it seemed like I was getting a reputation and smart people were deciding not to mess with me; why bother with pointless killing when I could be working on getting out of here? It seemed like there was something more going on in this place than what I thought I'd understood. I had a short conversation with someone (the next couple of kids and an adult?), saying I was pretty sure that if I fought my way deep enough into the place I'd find a way out... and the kids said they might be able to help if I took them with me so they could escape too. They were pretty impressed with what I'd done so far (even killing the other kids), and I said that Riddick would have done the same thing, and he'd probably have kept on killing.

Then next thing I knew, I was Riddick, and I was in Landel's Institute and it was nightshift. In the dream, Landel's wasn't one large building but several buildings spread over a decent-sized complex with quite a bit of of grass, road, and concrete between the buildings. The whole complex was surrounded by deep forest, and somewhere in the dream I was able to look out a window and see that the surrounding area looked like dense, forested, rolling hills near a stark mountain range.

I was in the building where prizes for good patients were kept, except it seems like some of the things in the room had a bit too much potential, so perhaps this was actually storage or sorting of donated items before patients got to have a look at them, if they ever did. Maybe the doctors chose prizes from this room... there were several other patients in the room as well, and we were grabbing stuff as fast as we could. Some of the items I grabbed were meant as trade items, there was a lot of girly stuff like decorative soap, makeup, glittery bath oils and body lotion in soft plastic tubes, that sort of thing.

There were items that I intended to keep as well: gel pens, notebooks, and something I can't remember anymore that I knew could make a good weapon with some work. I think I found a somewhat kiddy version of a world atlas, which I thought might come in handy, along with some other magazine I'd have to look at closer later... stuff patients were no doubt never meant to see, because it would hold major clues about the world we were trapped on... assuming it wasn't planted to confuse us. It was getting difficult to hold all this stuff, but then I found various plastic bags and even tote bags made of more durable fabric. I snagged a tote bag before several other people near me went bananas on the rest. I threw what I had into the bag and I think there was some candy or other sugary snacks I procured next.

Then we heard the intercom announce that morning was about to arrive. And right at that moment the sun rose, and the sunlight now streaming through the windows made me feel really, really drowsy, as if I'd been hit by a tranquilizer dart... but I knew nothing specific had happened... and I also knew this always happened at the end of nightshift. I fought it hard tho, I didn't want to lose my bag of stuff. The guy next to me was managing to stay awake so far as well, I think several other people fell asleep right on the floor... but I really didn't care, I was forcing my feet away from that room and towards my assigned bedroom.

I had to cross open lawn to get there, and my room was one of many in a set of cabins all attached in a long line. I made it into mine, knowing at any second I was going to black out or get found by a nurse. The room was in semi-darkness but I stumbled to my bed and took the books out of the bag, hiding them first under the mattress as they were the flattest things I'd stolen. I stuck the frustratingly large bulge of the rest of the bag under where I'd be sleeping, and crawled into bed with that big thing underneath my chest area. I tried to lay so that it wasn't noticeable there was stuff hidden with me.

I'm thinking a nurse came in? And now I realize the beginning of dayshift hadn't put me to sleep like it should have... but it doesn't really matter because...

This dream was set around the Great Depression but not during it. Probably either just before, or a little after. Anyways, there was a husband and wife, and the husband went to work and the wife was washing the dishes. But there was something wrong, she was losing it, going crazy a little at a time and this was one of those moments where she was finally truly going insane. There was a crash, had she thrown a glass at a wall or something? But all I could see was the plastic tub of water she'd had the dishes sitting in to be rinsed (it was full of clean water)... it was on the floor where she'd apparently dropped it. Nothing was broken from what I could see, but the wife didn't seem to care about what she'd done.

Here's where I come in, at least, as more than a bodiless observer. I'm the child of this couple, about eight or nine years old, a fairly good little girl. Mommy is making me porridge, but she's still working on the dishes (I think she's gotten that tub off the floor before anyone could see it) and she spills some dish soap. She gets mad at herself and cleans it up but then puts a little in the bowl she's going to serve my breakfast in. She mixes it up and gives it to me and it tastes funny and I spit it out. I say I don't want to eat it, and I have realized that she is trying to kill me but I play along like I don't know this and I beg to play outside. She's trying to get me to eat more but I go out the back door (it's a sliding glass door) and skip across the yard trying not to go too fast so she'll still think I'm oblivious to what she's doing. I'm actually quite afraid that she'll try and kill me in a more direct and physical way, a battle I will surely lose.

"I want to go swimming in the creek Mommy!" I keep saying over and over as I skip towards the water running along the back line of our property. It's just deep enough that my good swimming skills will give me the edge and let me get away from her by swimming down the creek. The current is fast, too, plus I'm hoping it dawns on her that she could say, "Oh, alright, let's go swimming," and think she can drown me or something, and then tell Daddy it was a horrible accident. As I reach the creek, this does occurr to her. But this is my moment to escape, and so off down the creek I swim, although some of it is not really deep enough to suit my needs but either way, there's no stopping now, I'm running/swimming for my life.

The creek goes by the park I play in sometimes and I get out there, tearing across the grass past the swingsets and there's a ballpark there too. I'm screaming for help, but inside I know I'm a child with a mother who's got a false reputation for being a decent person (or nobody here knows and would assume wouldn't really be trying to kill me). Who's going to believe me? I can't stop and talk to anyone really, because if I do that, Mommy will catch up and say something like, "Oh she's just throwing a fit because I wouldn't let her do something," and I'll be as good as dead. I keep running and screaming although I know if I scream too much I might run out of energy, so I time my shouts for help a few moments apart.

I've made it to the streets of town, and I'm trying to find a police man. I see one but he drives off before I can reach him. Then I'm on one of the main streets and there is a bank that was apparently just robbed, so this is where all the police are but they are busy with the crime that just happened and ignore me because I'm just some annoying brat. But then I find this guy who is a private detective and I tell him what's happening and he believes me! He helps me to run away, picking me up and running down the sidewalk away from the bank, away from Mommy. It's getting dark now and the detective has to put me down for some reason and we are both running and I look back and right behind us is a big man who looks very angry and is chasing us. And somehow I know Mommy has hired him. I get this sure feeling she's pulling out all the stops now, she just wants me dead and doesn't care how it's done.

I run out into the street, and there is a car coming up behind me. I keep running along the street right in front of the car, too scared to think properly anymore. A view inside the car: it's police men! And for a surreal moment they are just staring at my back as I run along just in front of them, unaware that the headlights behind me are anybody helpful, I think it's just a car. Then they turn the lights on, blue and strawberry red, and I remember that I have candy in my pocket. I stop in front of the police car and they stop too. I eat the red candy first because somehow it's important, and it tastes so good. Then I eat the next one under it (they're lined up kind of like Mentos or Lifesavers, but this is a gummy candy) because it's blue, but I don't eat the last one because it's not a color of the police lights. And then I faint. I know that because I fainted, the police will keep me safe because something that was physically and emotionally demanding enough on me to make me faint must surely be worth investigating.

I dreamed about a lot of things last night (yeah, took Unisom, that seems to make it worse). The only one I'm going to get into though is a brief visit to the world of Riddick, except he'd been dropped into a more modern day earth setting.

It started at night on a passenger train, sort of Amtrack idea mixed with a Japanese bullet train (it went very fast, in other words). Riddick had been captured by either a cop or a federal agent. I am not sure if Riddick killed him, or if circumstances allowed him to get away, but something happened to make the power on various sections of the train go out, and Riddick had escaped.

I became him, and found an empty passenger compartment. There were people or guards searching the train, but not very well, like they were only worried that weird things were going on with the train's power, not that a dangerous criminal was on the loose. I climbed up into a baggage rack to hide for a moment (above one row of seats, it was kinda like the cabins they have in Harry Potter on the Hogwarts Express). A guard went by, opened the door, and shone a flashlight around the compartment but not up towards the ceiling where I was hiding.

After he left, I opened or kicked out the window, then pulled the emergency break cord. When the train was going slow enough (but still fairly fast) I jumped and caught a lamp post or something like that, and then slid to the ground. I wanted to get as far away from the tracks and the whole area as possible, there was the thought in my mind that the guy who'd captured me earlier was still alive and would come after me.

The area was very wooded, a lot of pine trees, but I could see the lights of a town in the valley ahead. I was thinking of finding transportation or stealing some money or something there, if I could do it without being seen or word of my actions getting to the agent guy too quickly. Heh, I was definitely in the mind of a criminal for this dream. As I was heading for the lights though, some guy showed up on an embankment beside me and asked me if I needed a ride. Then he said, "Here comes one!" and there was a bright light beyond the embankment. Ahead of me was a sort of road/path cut into the grass and trees, and a semi truck came barreling through at high speed. The guy on the embankment jumped and managed to grab something on the truck and away he went on top of the truck.

I got to the top of the embankment and thought about trying to catch a ride in this new, weird way, but then I noticed that I was near a sidewalk. And suddenly it was broad daylight. The sidewalk went into a suburban neighborhood, but first you had to go under these weirdly trimmed trees, they were like big squared off blocks of hedge that hadn't been pruned up high enough, and stretched out to the street. There was a guy on the far side of the hedges, standing on the sidewalk amongst a bunch of kids toys (like Little Tikes stuff). He was wearing a grey suit and looked kinda sleezy (he had a goatee and shoulder length greasy black hair that was wavy, kinda looked like Yanni on drugs), but I could tell he was a cop. The thought that he was a crooked cop went through my head.

I guess I decided to find out, for whatever reason, because I went towards him (under the stupid tree things) and he invited me into his house, which was the one he was standing in front of. I think he even knew who I was. I followed him inside, to the back of the house, which had high ceilings and seemed nicely and simply decorated, sort of a mix of beach house and Ikea stuff. The walls and ceiling were white, and most of the decor was as well, although I think the carpet was a very light blue, as were some of the accents. It felt to me like the perfect setting for a fake goody two shoes cop and his perfect family. I knew better... the dude HAD to be crooked. Call it criminal instinct.

There was a little girl, the man's daughter, and she was coloring at a table in the room we'd come to, it must have been the living room, attached to a kitchen with a bar. The little girl was coloring with crayons (or colored markers?) on a very long piece of white paper, on the coffee table by the couch. She wasn't sitting on the couch, just on the floor by the coffee table. She asked me if I wanted to color too. She was probably only about seven years old.

I think all I did was sit down on the couch, and there was a discussion over who was going to make lunch, and what it was going to be. I think the mother of the family was around, and said she'd make it, and the father and girl had a feeling it would be all nasty health-foodish, so one of them decided to make it instead. I remember thinking I'd be relatively safe for the moment, and maybe the cop had some ideas for my particular skill set, or a way to get me out of the area without the agent finding me. My odds of surviving by hanging out at this place seemed about as good as anything else.